Stock Market & Financial Investment News

Sears signs lease agreement with Dick's Sporting at Simon Property mallSears (SHLD) has signed a sublease with Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) to occupy a portion of its second floor at the King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Pa. King of Prussia Mall is one of the largest malls in the United States and is owned and managed by Simon Property (SPG).

Simon Property investing $250M in renovating The Galleria in HoustonSimon announced a $30M renovation of Houston Galleria's luxury wing to complement the previously announced construction of a new flagship Saks store, the addition of 110,000 square feet of new retail space and the creation of a 14,000 square foot, architecturally appealing, free standing retail building. In total, Simon is investing $250M at The Galleria.

Sears says targeting REIT formation in May or JuneSears said "We are continuing our efforts to develop Sears Holdings as a membership company, without the significant asset intensity of its traditional retail business. To this end, we announced in November that we have been exploring the formation of a Real Estate Investment Trust to purchase some of our properties and to manage them like a pure real estate company. While we can offer no assurances that such a transaction will be consummated, we have made progress and are proceeding towards its formation and separation, which is projected to occur in May or June of this year. We are currently targeting between 200 and 300 Sears and Kmart stores to be sold to the REIT with expected proceeds to Sears Holdings in excess of $2B. The REIT itself would be funded by equity and debt with the equity raised through a rights offering. The subscription rights would be distributed pro rata to all stockholders of record of the company, and every stockholder would have the right to participate, except that holders of the company's restricted stock that is unvested as of the record date would be expected to receive cash awards in lieu of subscription rights."